Cow can you rest and enjoy the holidays without losing track of the competition or your physical condition? This is the traditional equation that high-level athletes find themselves faced with every year, when the championships take a break. A problem that has become more complex this season at Basket Landes, as an extremely busy month of January is expected: nine matches, championship, Coupe de France and Euroleague combined, to be played until the 1stis FEBRUARY.
For this resumption, the Landaises thus receive, this Sunday January 5, the Flammes Carolo before welcoming CBK Mersin, Wednesday January 8, in the Euroleague, then going in quick succession to Bourges, on the 12th in the championship then on the 15th in Euroleague. Indigestible? “Stratospheric”, prefers Vincent Bop, physical trainer at the club for eight years, with Gaston Mugnier.
Its objective, in close collaboration with the doctor, the physiotherapists and the technical staff: “to allow everyone to get off to a good start in 2025 and, to do this, find the best consensus to protect against injuries, which is more important. We really focused on prevention, although each girl has her own particularities: we formed working groups based on injuries to keep them as safe as possible. »
“A week is short”
Vincent Bop easily admits, “a week off is very short, it's the minimum to really recover and regain energy and pep with families and friends”. Myriam Djekoundade found a solution to make the most of it: for the first time, she did not go to her father's house in Toulouse, but received him, with her brother, her sister-in-law and her niece, just after having welcomed childhood friends. Only getaway: to Lourdes on December 25.
“We ended December on a high, I felt very refreshed. And since I was the one cooking, I knew what I was putting in the dishes, I was able to manage the butter. But that didn't stop me from introducing my family to Landes products. I ate foie gras anyway,” says with a smile the woman who hadn’t been able to take a real break for a year.
“Our job as physical trainers is to find a way for coaches to make the best use of each person’s potential”
Destiny Slocum, too, displays a broad smile at the mention of Christmas. Because it had been a long time since she had been able to return to the United States to be reunited with her mother, her two brothers and her sister. The 18 hours of travel, round trip? The American shrugs her shoulders. They were definitely worth it, “and then I’m used to it. Mentally, it feels so good to break away from our daily lives! And now I feel a lot of excitement before it starts like a second season. »
“We're hungry to get going again with this big month of January where we have lots of things to pick up! » confirms Clarince Djaldi-Tabdi. The Landes captain also traveled, although less far: to Avignon and Orléans, just to see her loved ones. “It feels good to cut back a little, even if it goes by very quickly. » On his menu, foie gras and seafood, “I didn't deprive myself, but without overdoing it”. And lots of rest, “Sleep was quite short in December”, without exaggerating either. “Of course there are days when you are lazy, but you know what it will cost you not to work. »
Program to follow
Vacations are good. Total inactivity is prohibited. Julie Barennes had made sure that no one forgot it. “It's important to cut, there is such a level of demand, the girls are not machines. But they had a schedule to follow during the week.” “A light workload of running and some cardio. So, for the recovery, they were able to resume with a big cardio session to revive the organisms and so that the coaches could work on the systems,” describes Vincent Bop.
“A short break of three days is fine. From the fourth onwards, you have to go through physical preparation again. This week, we were able to review everything, revisualize everything, add two or three small changes,” appreciates the coach, who admits: she has managed not to turn on her computer every day, even if she knows that she will have she also makes adjustments to make, in the coming weeks, in the management of the group “to maintain sufficient freshness. Fortunately, I have a fairly large group.”
Lasting will indeed be the key to this month of January. “We will have to find the perfect mix between intensity and recovery,” predicts Vincent Bop, who insists. “Our job as physical trainers is to get the players on the field, to find a way for the coaches to make the best use of each player's potential. It's a balance that's always unstable when you have a series of very high-intensity matches, particularly against the elite of European players. We are here to protect them as much as possible. »
